The Glasgow Wrap 🗞 Monday 13 January 2025
Drug consumption room opens, council to discuss secret donation, Jeely Piece Club turns 50, Seesaw Play Cafe to open, 46 arrested in crime crackdown + The Baby Grand closes after 40yrs
☔ Good Morning Glasgow! We’re back to our regular programming! Hope everyone has had a positive start to the new year. The city is thawing out today. The Met Office forecasts heavy rain and a high of 11C. Here’s Monday’s Wrap…
📰 First, a quick round-up of last week’s news:
↳ It was a bad week for food and drink businesses. Shucks on Hyndland Road closed on Sunday. Carlyle’s Cafe in Govan closed. Bar Soba closed its Merchant Square location. Barca Tapas and Cava Bar in Princes Square closed. Brave Bakers in Saltmarket closed.
↳ Staff at HMP Barlinnie took 9125 sick days in the first 10 months of last year, the most of any Scottish prison. - Norman Silvester, Daily Record.
↳ Work started on the John Knox Street/Duke Street portion of the Avenues project. - Eszter Tarnai, Glasgow Times.
↳ City Property, a Glasgow City Council quango put Parkhead Library, Baths and Wash House on the market for an undisclosed fee. - Ava Whyte, Glasgow Times.
↳ Glasgow Life CEO Susan Deighan will step down on June 27. - Eszter Tarnai, Glasgow Times.
↳ Strathclyde University and the University of Glasgow are among the Scottish universities that have received funding linked to the Chinese Communist Party. - Georgia Edkins, Mail on Sunday.
💉 The Thistle, the UK’s first sanctioned drug consumption room, opens today in the East End. - Helen McArdle, The Herald.
↳ Explained: Glasgow's Sanctioned Drug Consumption Room
💰 At Thursday's City Administration Committee meeting, senior council officials are scheduled to discuss a secret private donation to Glasgow City Council. The amount, details, and donor are being withheld and an NDA has been signed by unelected officials involved. - Stewart Paterson, Glasgow Times.
🧒 Castlemilk’s Jeely Piece Club, a space that provides learning and play opportunities for children of all ages, is celebrating 50 years. - Exclusive by Ann Fotheringham, Glasgow Times.
🛝 The former Ovenhouse Coffee and Brew Bar on Clarkston Road is being transformed into Seesaw Play Cafe where parents can enjoy a coffee while their children play. - Sean Murphy, Glasgow Live.
🏅 The Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026 Organising Company has announced the senior team delivering the event led by CEO Phil Batty. - Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.
🍝 Il Pastaio has reopened with TikTok chef Otello Calvert at the helm. Punters can get £5 pasta tomorrow (Tuesday) to celebrate. - Sean Murphy, Glasgow Live.
🍻 The Laurieston is one of the best pubs in Europe, according to The European Bar Guide. - Craig Williams, The Herald.
🔐 Glasgow-based security company SPS Doorguard Ltd has been fined £4000 and ordered to pay back more than £42,000 in proceeds of crime after repeatedly deploying unlicensed security services to high-profile sites across the country including COP26. - Security Industry Authority.
🚔 A crime crackdown around Bridge Street, Carlton Place and the St Enoch area saw 20 people charged with drug offences and a further 26 charged with anti-social behaviour. All 46 are now banned from these streets as part of an exclusion zone expansion. - Sarah Hilley, Local Democracy Reporter, Glasgow Live.
📱 BBC One Scotland has a new series on the Glasgow Tinder Swindler coming out later this month, Disclosure: Matched with a Predator. - Fahad Tariq, Glasgow Live.
🎹 The Baby Grand at Charing Cross is closing after 40 years as “landlords plan to demolish the building and redevelop the area”. - Xander Elliards, The National.
🏘 Glasgow City Region Retrofit Action Week summit is headed to the city next month. - Craig Williams, The Herald.
🚇 Architect Matt McCallum has transformed one of the old Subway seats into a chic mid-century sofa. - Katy Scott, BBC.
🏢 University of Glasgow is planning to transform a car park in Lillybank Gardens, Hillhead into student housing. Pre-application consultations will be held at the Advanced Research Centre today (3-7pm) and February 10 (3-7pm). - Kieran Webster, Glasgow Live.
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📌 Celebrate the lives of pigs on film this January with four free screenings at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre (Room 237ABC), including Ron Howard's Willow (1988), Alessio Schiazza's Cuori Liberi (2024), and Michael Sarnoski's Pig (2021). The series has been organised in collaboration with StOMAC, CinemARC, the English Literature Department at Glasgow, and the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic. All welcome.. Details. Thanks Jamie Redgate for submitting!
📌 New year, new moves! Absolute beginners salsa course starting Wednesday, January 15. 4 weeks long, one hour per week, no partner required, no previous experience necessary. All welcome! Thanks Sat for sharing!
📈 The most-viewed links from the last newsletter:
🍴 All the new bars and restaurants we're looking forward to in 2025
🗺 Map of murdered Scots women shines bleak light on killers who escaped justice
🗞 Thanks for reading daily edition number 179 and thank you to the 2,900+ subscribers who have joined The Wrap community. Consider upgrading your subscription to paid or referring a friend to keep the newsletter going…